Pandemic restrictions could lead to 'pastoral creativity,' says cardinal

By Sarah Mac Donald, Catholic News Service


DUBLIN (CNS) -- Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, head of the Vatican's evangelization congregation and a close collaborator of Pope Francis, said that although the pandemic may be restricting some exercise of the faith, it might also "lead to pastoral creativity, especially within families."

Speaking to Catholic News Service ahead of delivering the 2021 annual Trócaire/St. Patrick's College Maynooth Lenten lecture on "Caring for the Human Family and our Common Home," the Filipino prelate recognized that the pandemic has brought "a lot of suffering."

However, he set the pandemic-related restrictions on worship in the context of the suffering of Christians banned from the practice of their faith. He said he had been inspired by the story of Japan's "hidden Christians."

"If we feel that the pandemic has set limits to our public exercise of the faith, in some countries in the past, without the pandemic, they were not allowed to engage in a public expression of their faith for various reasons."

Recalling how Japan's "hidden Christians" had kept their faith alive for 200 years, Cardinal Tagle highlighted how Japan banned Christianity in the 17th century, and when it reopened its doors to Christianity in the 19th century, the French missionaries who went to Nagasaki were surprised to discover Christians who had survived all those years without church structures.

"In the midst of restrictions, it's the families, the laypeople, especially the mothers and the grandmothers, who passed on the faith. They were creative," the cardinal said.

Churches in Ireland remain closed for public worship under Level 5 restrictions.

Earlier March 9, the Irish bishops issued a strongly worded statement calling for the restoration of public worship as soon as the current Level 5 restrictions begin to be eased. Under the current roadmap for reopening, churches will not open for Mass until regulations return to Level 2.

"For people of faith not to be free to worship until regulations return to Level 2, whilst many other restrictions are eased, is seen as particularly distressing and unjust," the Irish bishops said.

"It is particularly painful for Christians to be deprived, for the second year running, of the public expression of our faith during the most sacred time of Holy Week and Easter," the bishops said.

In contrast, places of worship in Britain remain open for communal worship. The limit on the number who can attend Mass is decided on the basis of the capacity of the church following an assessment of risk.

Cardinal Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and president of Caritas Internationalis, admitted, "for us in the church, part of the suffering is that we want to provide pastoral help and pastoral guidance, but we cannot do it the way we were used to."

"This pandemic has led many churches and dioceses to reassess our usual ways of conducting mission and pastoral engagement. Even here in the Vatican, we are invited to reflect on what we call the 'normal' customary ways, to see how we can respond more adequately to the changing situation." The mission does not stop, he said, and the question is "how do we do it in a changed situation?"

Cardinal Tagle said his Lenten reflection was an attempt to bring together the themes of Pope Francis's encyclicals, "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home," and "Fratelli Tutti," the call for universal social friendship.

"We see an intimate connection between the two encyclicals," the cardinal said and noted Pope Francis' warning that "the degradation of the ecology of our common home happens side by side with the degradation of human relationships. The disregard of human beings is manifested also in our disregard for our common home, which is God's gift for all of us."